Does higher refresh rate monitor help at low FPS as well?

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I'm asking because I overclocked my monitor from 60Hz to 75Hz, and when I play a game where I have ~40FPS the game feels a bit smoother and less choppy when playing in a 75Hz mode instead of 60Hz at that ~40FPS.

I always hear you have to reach the monitor's refresh rate with FPS to see a difference, but it feels smoother and less choppy to me even at that ~40FPS.

Playing games at 75FPS @ 75Hz definitely feels way more smoother to me than 60FPS @ 60Hz. I cannot imagine what 144Hz must look like! :D I can't go back to 60Hz anymore.

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Thank you for the explanation. Then I guess it's not completely a bad idea to get a 144Hz monitor even if I won't reach 144FPS.

Though I noticed that when I overclock the monitor to 75Hz and boot up game that supports only 60Hz mode, the game is a bit choppy running at 60FPS, but when I switch monitor to 60Hz the game runs smoothly again. But I think most, if not every new game should support 75Hz mode.

By the way, won't higher refresh rate monitor put more stress on my GPU? I ask because when I overclock the monitor to 75Hz, my GPU idles at higher voltage and temps... I don't know if it is because of the overclock feature. I wonder if the same would happen If I bought a native 75Hz monitor without overclocking it.

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Thank you for the explanation. Then I guess it's not completely a bad idea to get a 144Hz monitor even if I won't reach 144FPS.

Not inherently, at least if you are not spending too much on 144Hz to the point of compromising on other features you will use.

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Though I noticed that when I overclock the monitor to 75Hz and boot up game that supports only 60Hz mode, the game is a bit choppy running at 60FPS, but when I switch monitor to 60Hz the game runs smoothly again. But I think most, if not every new game should support 75Hz mode.

The frametimes might be slightly different, but between 75Hz and 60Hz there shouldn't be an obvious difference in frametimes (if the game runs at 60fps).

Many games still run at a capped 60fps though.

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By the way, won't higher refresh rate monitor put more stress on my GPU? I ask because when I overclock the monitor to 75Hz, my GPU idles at higher voltage and temps... I don't know if it is because of the overclock feature. I wonder if the same would happen If I bought a native 75Hz monitor without overclocking it.

The monitor refreshing and your GPU showing frames work independently from each other, as in your monitor just looks for a new frame 75 times a second and your GPU just pushes out frames it has.

I can imagine with an overclocked display your GPU has to do some work though/

"There's no such thing as perfect. You're beautiful as you are Courage. With all your imperfections you can do anything." - Bathtub Barracuda

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I guess I will buy 75Hz in the future, unless 144Hz will become cheaper in here (75Hz is already a big improvement for me over 60Hz).

Can I switch to 60Hz mode on these monitors without underclocking manually? Just in case FreeSync won't fix the micro-stutters in this situation, because micro-stutters at 60FPS @ 75Hz are really noticeable to me and Vsync or Enhanced Sync does not fix them for me. But I believe FreeSync should fix it? If I remember correctly FreeSync is basically variable refresh rate? Or something like this... But I could be wrong.

I fixed the GPU working harder. I set the custom resolution to CVT Reduced Blanking (it seems to be the timing standard used by my monitor at 60Hz). It increased G.Pixel Clock and reduced G.Refresh Rate from 75Hz to 74.928.
GPU sits at 37°C on idle now with this. Before this small tweak it was sitting at 51°C, only because the GPU activated fans now and then to keep it there, otherwise it would go higher...

Anyway, 30-45FPS at 75Hz still looked better than 60Hz, but 60FPS is smoother at 60Hz. I was testing Resident Evil 2. and Assassin's Creed games.